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corroboration in the legislative history.”); Zinniel v.
Commissioner, 89 T.C. 357, 367 (1987) (“the portion of the
General Explanation [of the Blue Book] * * *, standing alone,
without any direct evidence of legislative intent, is not
unequivocal evidence of legislative intent”), affd. 883 F.2d 1350
(7th Cir. 1989).
The majority opinion’s reliance on the Blue Book in
overturning this Court’s decision in Redlark v. Commissioner,
supra, raises at least three concerns:
First, to the extent the majority opinion purports to find
corroboration for the Blue Book language in a Joint Committee
staff summary “published” during the conference on the 1986 Act
(and not expressly considered in this Court’s Redlark opinion),
it is unsatisfactory. The Joint Committee staff summary is
scarcely more reliable an indicator of congressional intentions
than the Blue Book itself. Like the Blue Book, the Joint
Committee summary was a staff-generated document; it was released
as a committee print rather than as a report; there is no
indication that any Member of Congress approved it during
consideration of the 1986 Act. A mere proliferation (or more
precisely, a mere doubling up) of staff-generated materials
cannot supply the want of direct evidence of congressional
intentions.
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